Thursday, 18 September 2014

Economics for Real People: Great Myths of the (First) Great Depression

Yes, the students are back, and they’re inviting you to tonight’s seminar at the Auckland University Economics Group for some sense and sensibility …

Several years on and, despite ourselves, we’re still mired in a slowdown that has now lasted longer, any by some measures has been deeper, as the original Great Depression. Everyone knows about that first Great Depression—but is everything they know correct? There are multiple lessons from the Great Depression for the times we live in now—if only we were in a position to draw them, and if only the history of the Great Depression wasn’t so encumbered with mythology. We look at a few of the many myths around the Great Depression, and try to draw some lessons for today, asking: · Was the Depression really a Crisis of Capitalism? · Which great economist (whose theories are stilled followed today) lost his shirt in the Crash he never saw coming? · Did the Fed really do too little to help? Or too much? · Did Herbert Hoover just sit back and watch things get worse? Or make it worse? · Was Franklin Roosevelt chiefly responsible for getting the US back on track? Was Michael Joseph Savage the maestro here in NZ? · Did World War II finally bring about the Recovery? Join us as we examine these stories and many more about the FIRST Great Depression. Date: Thursday, September 18, 2014 Time: 6-7pm Location: Case Room Two, Level Zero, University of Auckland Business School (plenty of parking in the Business School basement, off Grafton Rd) All welcome!

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